The Pacific Northwest is an intense hotbed for independent publishers and artists of comics. That’s according to Andrea Gilroy, and she should know since she has a Ph.D. in comics. Well, not exactly. She has a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Oregon, but her dissertation topic was Origin Stories: Narrative, Identity, and the Comics Form. 

So, what can you do with a degree in the humanities? If you’re Gilroy, you open a comic book store and then you have a comic art festival. 

Books With Pictures Eugene is just what it sounds like. It carries any form of storytelling that has a visual element: tough biographies in the form of graphic novels, manga, superhero series, small edition zines, picture books for kids. In fact, comics are hard to define, says Gilroy, and that difficulty of pinning down exactly what they are is one of the things she likes best about them.     

Books With Pictures in Eugene carries the same name as Books With Pictures in Portland, which was founded first by Gilroy’s friend Katie Pryde. Pryde is a partner in the Eugene store as well. 

Gilroy’s store is five years old this year, and she is marking the anniversary by organizing the first Comic Art Festival of Eugene, or CAFE, which takes place Oct. 4 in the covered 5th Street Market Alley. It’s a festival, not a convention, she explains, because it’s not a typical comic con like the one held in San Diego or in Portland. The emphasis for the event in Eugene will be on independent publishers and artists, not big corporations and personalities. 

CAFE will present panel discussions and hands-on workshops, and will bring an impressive 40 artists together all under one roof. Authors and illustrators, often one and the same person, will show their work and make themselves available to anyone who’s interested. The event will be open to the public and free.

“Comics are for everyone” is the motto at Books With Pictures. And Gilroy is open to talk about them to anyone who drops by. Just don’t expect her to use the language of academia. 

“I don’t want to talk to just three people,” she says. 

Not much to worry about on that account. Eugene has supported the store since it opened in March 2020, just a few weeks before it had to close its doors again due to the pandemic. In the beginning, customers ordered online, which kept the store in business, and Gilroy made home deliveries. Since then, in addition to comics, she has events throughout the year, bringing in authors for signings.  

For instance, if you happened to be at 5th Street Public Market in August, you might have run into the Archie vs Minor Threats signing held outside the store, where the creator of that series, comedian and actor Patton Oswalt, was in attendance, along with other writers who worked on it. Some of those writers also happened to have worked on the X-Men series, too.  

I don’t know much about comics, but I’ve heard of X-Men. Who hasn’t? It’s part of mainstream culture. I’m a fan of Oswalt too, who was in town the evening of the signing performing at Olsen Run Comedy Club, a short distance from the store. I admit, I did geek out a bit when I ran into him leaving the Public Market.

One of CAFE’s guest speakers is artist Caroline Cash, who won the Eisner Award named after famed comic artist and educator Will Eisner (1917-2005). Cash created the graphic novel A Girl in the World as well as PeePee PooPoo comics. “It’s exciting to meet artists who make you laugh or think or whose work you can relate to,” Cash said in a 2022 interview. “When you meet your favorite cartoonists it’s so much more memorable than an Instagram comment. You get a chance to talk to them and maybe learn from and hang out with them.”  

After she graduated from UO, Gilroy tried working as a professor, but the salary of adjunct instructors just wasn’t cutting it. Academia’s loss is Eugene’s gain. We have a store that we seem to have been waiting for — in Gilroy’s words, a “geek space” where everyone is invited.   CAFE is 10 am to 7 pm Saturday, Oct. 4, at 5th Street Market Alley. See BooksWithPictures.com for details and a complete list of artists attending. Books With Pictures, 296 East 5th Avenue suite 224 at 5th Street Public Market, is open Monday through Saturday 10 am to 7 pm, and Sunday 11 am to 6 pm.